Page 111 - How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 8th Edition 8th Edition

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Chapter 17
Where and How to Submit the Manuscript

Great Journals are born in the hands of the editors; they die in the hands of businessmen.
—Bernard DeVoto

Choosing the Journal

The choices of where and how to submit the manuscript are important. Some manuscripts are buried in inappropriate
journals. Others are lost, damaged, or badly delayed because of carelessness on the part of the author.

The first problem is where to submit the manuscript. (Actually, you will have already reached a decision on this point
before the typing of the manuscript in accord with the Instructions to Authors.) Obviously, your choice depends on the
nature of your work; you must identify those journals that publish in your subject area.

A good way to get started or to refresh your memory is to scan a recent issue of Current Contents. It is usually easy to
determine, on the basis of journal titles alone, which journals might publish papers in your field. Only by examination
of the tables of contents, however, can you determine which journals are publishing papers in your field. You may
also elicit useful information by talking to colleagues.

To identify which journals might publish your manuscript, you should do several things: Read the masthead statement
(a statement,

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usually on the ''title page" at the front of the issue, giving the name of the journal, the publisher, and a brief statement
of purpose) in a current issue of each journal you are considering; read the "scope" paragraphs that are usually
provided in the Instructions to Authors; and look carefully at the table of contents of a current issue.

Because journals have become more specialized, and because even the older journals have changed their scope
frequently (of necessity, as science itself has changed), you must make sure that the journal you are considering is
currently publishing work of the kind you propose to submit.

If you submit your manuscript to a wrong journal, one of three things can happen, all bad.

First, your manuscript may simply be returned to you, with the comment that your work "is not suitable for this
journal." Often, however, this judgment is not made until after review of the manuscript. A "not suitable" notice after
weeks or months of delay is not likely to make you happy.

Second, if the journal is borderline in relation to your work, your manuscript may receive poor or unfair review,
because the reviewers (and editors) of that journal may be only vaguely familiar with your specialty area. You may be
subjected to the trauma of rejection, even though the manuscript would be acceptable to the right journal. Or you
could end up with a hassle over suggested revisions, which you do not agree with and which do not improve your
manuscript. And, if your manuscript really does have deficiencies, you will not be able to benefit from the sound
criticism that would come from the editors of the right journal.
Third, even if your paper is accepted and published, your glee will be short-lived if you later find that your work is
virtually unknown because it is buried in a publication that your peers do not read. This is another good reason, by the
way, for talking to colleagues before deciding on a journal.

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